Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/508



478 CONCLUDING LETTER.

"Piquisiri, December 23, 1868.

" Sir, — As the representative of a friendly nation, and to provide against all that may happen, allow me to entrust to your care the subjoined document, by which I transfer to Doiia Elisa Lynch all my private effects of whatever description.

" I beg you will have the goodness to keep the document until it can be securely delivered to the aforesaid lady, or returned to me, in the unforeseen event of my having no personal communication with you.

" Allow me also to entreat you from this moment to do all in your power to put into effect the intentions named in the document.

" Receive, beforehand, all the thanks I can give you. — Your faithful servant,

" Francisco S. Lopez/^

[same to same.]

" Sir, — As you have had the extreme goodness to offer to take charge of my children, I now recommend them to your protection should anything happen to me.

" I authorize you to adopt any means in their favour you may consider best for the welfare of those poor little creatures, more particularly Leopoldo, whose tender age fills me with anxiety.

^^ You will thus gain my eternal gratitude, since the fate of those children is what will most trouble me in the ter- rible period I dedicate to the fortunes of my country. They will be safe under the protection of a gentlemau whose qualities I have been able to appreciate, not, indeed, during a long acquaintance, but to me a happy one.

^' It is thus. General, I venture to trouble you, with